…did you know that there is a place, a far and distant land, where people fall asleep to the sound of wind rustling through the trees and the subtle vibrations of God’s creation, fully alive yet completely at peace…

…did you know that beyond our world of jackhammers, sirens, and buzzing mopeds there exists a place where people reside in a quiet and calm atmosphere?

…did you know that CAM is going to this place!!!?

and YOU are invited!

CAMping Trip

Nordic Pines, Baraboo WI

July 8^th-10^th

Cost: $10

Hey guys,

I have had a number of comments on the talk I gave last week about Fearing God in relation to the apparent conflict between fearing and loving God.  A passage that has been brought to my attention that I think is important to consider is 1 John 4: 16-18.  It says “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, becuase fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

So right here it seems that we have a contradiction where those who fear are not made perfect in love.  However, what I want to call attention to in this passage is that the fear John is addressing is a fear of “the day of judgment.”  There should be no fear of God’s judgment because genuine love confirms salvation.  In other words, if we have a genuine love for God and accept His love for us, we should not fear death and judgment. 

This then, does not undermine Fearing God.  Our fear of God should be a natural, humbling response to His awsomeness, not a fear of condemnation.  The Fear of the Lord is rooted in understanding His power and is a necessary foundation to experience the fullness of His love and purpose for us here on Earth.

Hopes this helps a bit.

Peace

Hey all,

Thanks everybody for coming to CAM last night!  It was great to see so many people : )  I wanted to write a little more on the video series that we started using last night and give a little more explanation.  I had a few people come up and ask me what the deal was with the girl almost drowning in her bedroom.  It was kinda a weird scene, so don’t feel incompetent if you didn’t get it.

So I did some research on the creators of the Basic video series Flannel (http://flannel.org/) and watched some “behind the scenes” footage that was on the DVD we watched last night and I found out a little more.  As I mentioned in my talk, the goal of Basic is to transform people’s mindset about God and more specifically Church.  They want to have people understand that instead of going to church, we should be the Church.  And the very name “Basic” is used to give people an understanding of what Church is and what its supposed to be at a foundational level.  With each video, they want us to take away one simple truth.  So with Fear God, the obvious thing was that “if you saw Him, you would fear Him.”

The series takes a look at 3 different characters (one that we saw last night with the girl) and follows them in a very creative way for people to hold on to an image along with the message.  So the girl drowning is supposed to be a visual metaphor of what they want to get at: Fearing God.  According to the film director its supposed to be a, “simple, basic metaphor that shows an aspect of fear.”  So there you have it.  Nothing too complicated I guess.  Artsy people, I guess you have to help the rest of us out here on this one : )

Just another heads up then; there will be more of these “artsy visual metaphors” to come as we continue on in this series.  Please post your thoughts if you have any deeper interpretations of what was going on, or if you have any questions.

Thanks guys!

Peace

The grill out was great fun! Food, music volleyball! Too bad we forgot to take pictures

We aren’t sure how many people ended up coming, but we do know you all ate 362 hot dogs & brats, 4 large coolers full of watermelon slices, 12 giant bags of puppy chow and tons of chips. Way to go!

After all that fun are you wondering how to get more involved over the summer? Come check out Summer CAM next week in the basement of the Regent at 8pm. (And if you loved the volleyball join us at the courts outside the Regent at 7pm).There will be signs posted in the Regent to help you get down there!

Do you want to meet up with someone from CAM for coffee to learn more about CAM? E-mail us at: cam@blackhawkchurch.org

See you next week

My first attempts at blogging…..ever.  This could be the start of something beautiful, or a short lived venture.  I guess we shall see. 

Last week I started a political science class here at the UW that is a study on “Ancient Political Thought.”  Basically we are reading Plato’s Republic and discussing his philosiphies on justice and the inner-self.  It seems to be an interesting class so far, and I have enjoyed the lofty discourse that we have had to a point (However, after 2 hours discussing the meaning of “good” your head starts to hurt).  I would have never guessed what happened last Thursday.  My proffessor started a conversation by asking, “Is anybody a Christian?”  I rose my hand looking around the room and observed my other 9 classmates looking right back at me; each with their hands down.  “Ok,” my teacher started, “tell me about John 1.”  Out of nowhere, I was put on the spot to discuss my understanding of the Bible and how it relates to the Platonic understanding of knowledge gained through reading.  Later, the professor asked me to give an account for the Christian understanding of free will and evil in the world.  Dang!  I mean, it was still the first week here people! 

But this is the reality that we face as Christians.  We are living in a world that is unpredictable and can ask difficult questions.  The Bible’s response to this situation?  Not to say, “Well, I will just leave that one up to God because I just don’t know” (Not to say that some things are absolutely beyond our comprehension and that can be the only response).  Rather, Peter urges Christ followers to “set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Chirst may be ashamed of their slander.” – 1 Peter 4:2

I have prayed on a number of occasions for opportunities to be used by God.  This is an important step in being a witness for God, but the next step that is also important is being prepared.  As Peter assures us, we are giving an answer for the hope we have. God is already by are side and throught the Spirit, He can give us the answers we are seeking and pick us up after failing miserably. I am both thankful and anxious for this opportunity in my class.  Hopefully through the Spirit and the wisdom God gives me, I will be able to communicate my understandings with gentleness and respect.  Who knows what kind of conversations will come about from this.

Peace

Hey all!

Study Day (Mon, May 9th) was a blast again this year! We counted over 1250 students come through Blackhawk’s doors that Monday. (See pic below).

We had a raffle for Mifflin Tickets – And the winner is….

Nicholas Boldt!

Congrats! And thanks for everyone who helped make it a great day

We have has a very cool opportunity placed in front of us from our friends at the Majestic theater.  The owners of the Majestic have been asked by the city to oversee the Mifflin Street Block Party and in light of this big undertaking, they have asked if we might consider helping with clean up the day of the event.  At Blackhawk, we love Madison, the downtown neighborhoods and the University so helping at something like this just feels right.  We are looking forward to showing people the love of Jesus by how we serve people by cleaning up.  Who knows what God has in store for us???

Here is an article about Mifflin this coming year which you may want to take a look at this article….

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_d6cebe2a-3ea9-5da7-b244-93d26a17a248.html

Alright…  So first off,  I feel like I need to apologize for speaking so long last night.  Who do I think I am???  Thanks for hanging in there with me.   Since I finished though, I’ve had quite a few facebook messages, emails and texts about putting the link to the Bells Beach Open up here.  So here you go….

http://live.ripcurl.com/index.php?aid=1406&q=Bells11Highlights

THis first one is of the highlights from the quarter finals through the finals with Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning.  You can watch this one if you wan tto get more of a feel for the whole contest and other surfers involved.

http://live.ripcurl.com/?aid=1409&q=Bells11MensFinals

The next one is the highlight 3 minutes of the final.  You get more of a feel of Parko’s last wave in this one.  If the surfing isn’t enough for you already, the commentators Australian accents just add to the cool factor.

Lastly, here are the articles from the NY Times about the church in China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/world/asia/18beijing.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=ilicit%20church,%20evicted&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/world/asia/25church.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

If you are interested in hearing more about the topic we discussed last night on Acts 3 & 4, I got a lot of my ideas from a series Andy Stanley taught called “Big Church” which looks at the movement of the 1st century church through the book of Acts.  Commentaries I used were The NIV Application Commentary on Acts by Ajith Fernando and Acts For Everyone by N.T. Wright.

Let’s Be Bold,

Matt

The other day I was at a coffee shop, sitting at a table next to the store front wall of windows. It was the perfect spot so soak up the sun, sip my coffee, and observe all the people as they passed on by on the sidewalk. (Turns out, if you are a people-watcher like me, this is also the best place to procrastinate on work). Anyway, at the table across from mine alongside this wall there was an elderly man sitting with kind of a dismayed looked on his face as he drank his coffee and read the morning newspaper. (That’s right I observe everyone…not just the street walkers). For nearly an hour, this man did not make a sound. People were coming in and out, brushing past him, making lots of noise yet he remained completely silent. It was as if he was sucked into his own little world. Until finally he looked up from his paper and bent his head around to look outside.

Approaching on the sidewalk was a woman and her young daughter. The little girl was probably no older than two, but boy was she independent; it was so funny to watch her waddling around on her own, pausing every few steps to shake her little hips and laugh at herself. This little girl, had definitely gotten the elderly man’s attention, and in an instance, I saw everything about him change. His eyes softened as he began to smile, and moments later he was in a rousing bout of full-out (loud) laughter.

What just happened? It was kind of shocking at first, but the longer I observed this man’s reaction to the little girl the more joy I felt. Sure, it was fun to watch the little girl on the sidewalk, but watching this man come alive, watching him fill up with so much joy, that was even more enjoyable to me! I was smiling about it long after the man had left the coffee shop.

It made me think, maybe this is kind of like what God experiences when he sees us full of joy. God wants us to be joyful in this life. He wants us to take his forgiveness, his grace, and his freedom and live life joyfully! And as we do, I think we start to understand the kind of God we serve; a God who loves us unconditionally and seeks us endlessly. 

Zephaniah 3:17

            The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

It’s good Friday today.  We had amazing Maundy Thursday services last night at Blackhawk on Brader way!  A great time for our community to take a look at John 13, to worship and to take communion together.   These services we have at Blackhawk our some of my favorites of the year.

Then, this morning, as I got up, I had a chance to look at the gospel account of Jesus crucifixion with my daughters.  As we looked at them  together and talked through Jesus’ unbelievable love for us, we went back and read Isaiah 53 together.  Amazing to think of how much earlier this passage was written from the time of Jesus’ death.  And amazing to see how it foreshadows Jesus’ life and death.

As you prepare for Easter, or even if you are reading this after Easter, take a look at Isaiah 53.  May it bring you to a place of worshiping our King!  Jesus, the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world!!!!